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Father's Day isn't as connected to pipes as it once was. In the '50s and '60s, pipes were among the most popular gifts for the informal occasion, second only to neckties, though hammers and golf clubs were also popular gifts. Indeed, it was a lucky father who got a pipe instead of a necktie, because ties chosen by their children were usually pretty awful. I know, because I bought a tie or two for my dad, and he did not wear them.
Maybe it was similar for pipes, because when I saved my allowance and bought him a pipe — in the shape of a revolver with the stem as its barrel — he smoked it only once, unable to avoid doing so under the pressure of my excitement and anticipation. At least it got one use, unlike the ties, which disappeared into the back of his closet to haunt him, perhaps because my favorite colors at the time were green and mustard yellow. I still like those colors, but I don't wear them and avoid looking directly at people who do, and I presume it would be the same for people looking at me, which is hard enough already.
Mother's Day is more popular than Father's Day, though not because mothers are more popular than fathers. Unlike my dad, my mom always used whatever weird gift I'd find or make for her. Pot holders made from hay-baling twine, picture frames decorated with melted candle wax, Popeye-themed socks, whatever, they were used and cherished rather than stored. It highlights the difference between some moms and dads. However, Mother's Day has been more celebrated from the start, likely because mothers appreciate it more.
Mother's Day Motivated Father's Day
Mother's Day started being celebrated in 1908 and became an official national holiday in 1914. Fathers as a category were first celebrated at an event in West Virginia, also in 1908, at a church sermon honoring the 362 men lost in the explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines. Then in 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd, after hearing a sermon about Mother's Day, began a campaign to make Father's Day a national event. Her father was a Civil War veteran and a widower who raised his six children alone, and she felt that fathers deserved the same honors as mothers. She chose June 19, her father's birthday, though the occasion would later be observed on the third Sunday of June. She contacted churches, government officials, and stores for support and succeeded in bringing a statewide Father's Day to Washington State in 1910, proclaimed by the mayor of Spokane.
In the 1920s and '30s, there was a movement to dispense with Mother's Day and Father's Day in favor of Parents Day, to honor parenting rather than either motherhood or fatherhood individually. When the Great Depression struck, that movement seemed unimportant in comparison to other problems and it was abandoned, especially when merchants began to push for Father's Day as a way to bolster sales. It was promoted as a second Christmas, because Christmas was good for retail sales of fedoras, socks, neckties, greeting cards, pipes, and tobacco.
Father's Day Gains Popularity
President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of Father's Day, and while it was still not federally recognized, in 1924 he was recommending that individual state governments support and observe the day
Fathers were generally unimpressed and considered this campaign for Father's Day to be commercial chicanery. However, with WWII, the idea of Father's Day became a way to support the troops, and by the end of the war it may not have been an officially declared national holiday but it was more widely celebrated.
It wasn't until 1972 that Father's Day was made a federal holiday. President Richard Nixon signed the proclamation, and while he is remembered for many things, that detail is probably lost to most. On April 1, 1970, for example, Nixon signed the legislation banning cigarette ads on radio and television. Notably, he was a pipe smoker of up to eight bowls a day.
Popular Culture
Pipes have traditionally been associated with fathers, particularly since the advent of television, with the 1950s and 1960s portraying many father characters with pipes, perhaps most famously in the show Father Knows Best (1954-1960), starring Robert Young, who also starred in the radio show that ran from 1949 to 1954. Of particular interest is a radio episode titled, "The Missing Pipes," in which his daughter and her friend liberate some pipes from the friend's father's collection to give a cat that has just had kittens — because they couldn't find any celebratory cigars. They hide the pipes in the main character's house, where they are found, and Jim, the father in the show, thinks his son has started smoking and decides to teach him how to smoke in order to dissuade the behavior. The episode may be listened to here for those interested, and is amusing and interesting from today's perspective because it's themed around pipes, something we no longer experience.
The point is that pipes were at one time ubiquitous in popular culture, and their popularity was associated with fathers, so Father's Day likewise became associated with pipes. Of course, pipe manufacturers have provided special Father's Day pipes, most famously the Peterson Father's Day series, which ran from 2010-2014. Mark Irwin has written about those pipes on his blog, "Peterson Pipe Notes."
Currently, Erik Stokkebye 4th Generation has released Father's Day pipes for this year in the Fathers, Friends and Fire series, so it remains a tradition even now.
Still, it's difficult for the families of pipe smokers to buy pipes for them, because we are pretty particular about our pipes and have to provide specific hints when we're hoping for one. But the best part of Father's Day is not the gifts, but the recognition. In my household, it's a day when I am pampered, when I am not expected to do chores, when I can lounge around and smoke my pipes and putter about in the garage or read without guilt, without honeydos, without shopping or cooking or taking out the trash. I look forward to Father's Day, and hope that yours is equally pleasant.
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Comments
Very enjoyable articles.My beloved teacher Tony Dawson had a saying: “Not quite Capstan, but then, what is?”http://www.tonydawson.org/the-smoker.html
Thanks, Chuck. This really hits a sentimental nerve for me. For a certain Father’s Day during 1972, I too, saved some money as a teen and chose a Savinelli Capri instead of the dreaded tie; Dad loved it and smoked it often!
Very interesting article -- a nice departure from Chuck's usual inane silliness. BTW: I didn't know "Tricky Dick" was a pipe-smoker, although I knew his successor famously did.
When people give me gifts I always make use of them. It seems selfish to me not to. No matter how awful or useless they may be. That someone thought enough of me to get me a gift is important to me. I am just grateful that ties pretty much went out of fashion.